Around Again
by Finding-Emo
Summary: A few little alternate universe drabbles for Aoi24's challenge, mostly shippy but a couple just gen-ish. Various characters, settings and pairings, mainly crack. Y'all been warned.
1. Slow Country

Sun streamed through the huge window that dominated one wall of the room and bathed Usopp in warmth and light. He rolled over and tried to ignore it, but soon the heat under the blanket became too much to bear and he reluctantly sat up on the battered old couch. He blinked a little, in a vague attempt to clear his head of the half-sleep-half-beer fog that clouded it, and managed to focus on a glass of orange juice and a note that someone had left for him. On closer inspection, there were also two painkillers sitting on the table beside the paper.

Usopp took a sip of the juice and knocked back both tablets, then finished the rest of the glass while he waited impatiently for the painkillers to take effect. They didn't, not that he could tell anyway, but he did become aware of someone softly playing a guitar in the next room over. Anything, in his opinion, was better than sitting in the harsh light feeling sorry for himself, so he got to his feet and shuffled through the open door to find Thatch sitting on his bed and playing an old blue guitar.

"Hey, you," Usopp croaked, "that's my guitar."

Thatch stopped playing. "Sorry, just brings back memories." He gently put the guitar on the bed and stretched lazily. "Didn't know you played?"

Usopp shrugged and turned to go to the kitchen for more painkillers, when Thatch's voice stopped him in his tracks:

"By the way, is there any particular reason you busted in here dead drunk last night?"

A shiver went up his spine. "Er…"

"Because I can tell you right now that you seriously owe me a favour, buddy. I don't appreciate cleaning up other people's vomit," and here Thatch sort of laughed in a way that wasn't even slightly funny, "and besides anything else, you're a terrible kisser when you're drunk."

Usopp blanched. "Oh god, I actually did that?"

Thatch nodded a little -"Yeah, man,"-, and Usopp died a little on the inside (or felt like he did, anyway). A million stupid explanations ran through his mind, each leaving as soon as he thought of how to say it. He opened his mouth in the hope that an excuse might present itself, but Thatch held up a hand to stop him.

"Don't worry about that bit, I just want to know what someone your age is doing getting so damned drunk that you don't even know what you're doing"

He flushed furiously, and before he could stop himself he spat, "Same thing you did when you were my age!"

To his surprise, Thatch didn't shout or lash out, just put his face in his hands and breathed out slowly. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But I was a brainless nutter when I was your age. Where's your excuse?"

Still kind of mad, but mostly frustrated and ashamed, he muttered, "Dunno…"

Thatch stood up. "All right, you made a mistake. Happens to everyone. Just don't do it again, all right? Or at least if you hafta, do it with someone responsible like me."

"You're not responsible…"

"Yeah I am!" Thatch considered that, then quickly added, "For a given value of responsible, at any rate."

Usopp shook his head and laughed for the first time in a while.

"You're crazy, man."

"Fuck yeah."

* * *

Why, Lord, why is Thatch not listed in the character file? D: Um... yeah. This is for Aoi24's alternate universes challenge, basically you have to do five drabbles, all set in an alternate universe. I know the rules, but I'm bad at explainin', so check out his/her/its profile if you want to do it. Also, just so you're aware, there isn't a single 'HIGH SCHOOL OHMAI' AU in the bunch 'coz I'm classy like that. Yeh.

Enjoy!


	2. Do it, you won't

Do It, You Won't

The problem, as it was, was not that Eustass Kidd had a girlfriend. The problem, in Trafalgar and the rest of his friends' eyes, was that he insisted on showing such affection to her in their sight. Not sloppy 'I-love-you-my-puppy-wuppy-no-I-love-you-more' affection, though, more along the lines of 'I'll-stick-my-tongue-down-your-throat-in-public'. (This was only slightly more tolerable than the other kind, but still annoying.) It was getting to the point where even Luffy, who was not the most observant at the best of times, had asked Eustass to please not do that when Luffy was trying to eat.

And so, Trafalgar and Basil had come to the conclusion that something had to be done about it.

They confronted Eustass in the morning, in the park outside Basil's house. As the three of them walked along through the rugby field, Eustass attracting dirty looks from passersby, Trafalgar decided to broach the subject.

"Hey, Eustass, about your girlfriend…"

Eustass glanced at him. "Yeah? Wot about her?"

As Trafalgar tried to remember what he'd been going to say that had sounded so good in his head, Basil cut in. "We know that you're going out, you don't have to prove it by expressing horizontal devotion to her every time you have her in front of us."

Their small group came to a stop as Eustass took a moment to work out what Basil had said, then get angry. "What?" he growled at Basil.

Trafalgar grabbed his shoulder, just in case, and said sternly, "Basil's exaggerating a bit, but if you could ease up a bit with her around us that'd be cool."

Eustass pulled away roughly, but he did seem a little calmer. "Fuck ya, man," he said, spitting on the grass, "I'll do what I want."

And sadly, as they all knew, this was absolutely true. Trafalgar sighed, and they started walking again, both Basil and Trafalgar trying to think of a way to get him to tone it down a bit. They reached the end of the field, and as they climbed over the fence that was meant to keep trespassers out, Eustass laughed and said, "What're ya's gonna do if I don't anyway? Give me a hiding?"

There was a moment of thinking on the part of Basil and Trafalgar. "Uh…" Trafalgar stared at the sky, trying to think of something, when Basil said, "Ah!"

Eustass laughed again, in that irritating way he had. "Light dawns! G'wan, tell us…"

Basil folded his arms and gave Eustass a hard look. "If you insist on being so… physical with your woman, then I'll insist on being _exactly _as physical with Apoo."

Silence reigned for all of three seconds, and then Eustass burst into wild laughter. Trafalgar laughed too, if only because the thought of Basil Hawkins, of all people, being physical with anyone was just too ridiculous a concept to imagine. Basil stared them both down, keeping a straight face even as Eustass fell to the ground with mirth. "I am actually serious, you know," he said in a very cold way.

"Pff…" Eustass got to his feet, still shaking slightly. "Do it, you won't."

"Is that a challenge, Eustass?"

Eustass grinned wildly. "You bet."

Basil stared at him for a moment, then nodded briskly. Trafalgar laughed out loud, "It's on, then?"

And he and Eustass cracked up again, shaking with laughter. Even Basil managed to crack a smile for a change…

…and then Eustass's girlfriend saw the three of them and came running.

"Hey, Eustass!"

And that ruined what good mood Basil and Trafalgar had had.

That evening, as Trafalgar, Jewelry, Luffy and a few more of the Supernovas (as the sillier members of the group insisted on calling themselves) sat on the beach, waiting for the rest, Trafalgar remembered Eustass and Basil's deal. He twisted around and called to Luffy, "Hey, are Basil and Eustass gonna be here soon?"

Luffy paused in kicking a half-inflated beachball around to yell back, "Yeah, they txt-ed!"

Trafalgar bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. What would Basil do…? After all, Eustass had been even more, ah, _affectionate_ than usual this morning. While he contemplated this, Apoo sat down beside him and said, "Hey, you know if Bas'll be here soon?"

That was it; Trafalgar collapsed into a fit of laughter. Apoo gave him a worried look, and prodded Drake in the shoulder.

"Is Trafalgar awright?"

While Drake and Apoo debated the definition of 'awright' and whether Trafalgar was, he collected himself into something resembling a sane man. He sat up, checked his phone and looked over the dune tops. Sure enough, Zoro, Eustass, and Eustass's weird friend who he only knew as Killer came over the sand, each carrying some variation of alcohol. Eustass jumped down to where Trafalgar was, shit-eating grin firmly on face. "Basil show yet?" When Trafalgar shook his head, he gave a loud barking laugh. "Pussyyyy! Eh, whatever, means I win, yeah?"

Trafalgar thought for a moment. "Not necessarily. Apparently he told Luffy he'd come."

They looked over to where Luffy, Zoro and Killer, for reasons best known to themselves, were playing some combination of rugby, netball and volleyball. "Eh… he'd know, I guess," grunted Eustass.

He and Eustass sat around for a while, watching Jewelry and Drake sort out the fire as the sun began to set. Apoo joined in with Luffy's game of netrugvolley out of boredom, before they were forced to stop by reason of no longer being able to see the ball or one another for that matter, and as everyone gathered around the fire, Basil finally came wandering out of the darkness – "Hello, I'm here."

Apoo grinned up at him. "Hey!" he called happily, "took you long enough!"

"I'm sorry," apologized Basil, a rare smile gracing his face. As he crossed the sand, Eustass's words from earlier floated to the top of Trafalgar's mind.

"Do it, you won't…"

And as those words ran through Trafalgar's mind, Basil sat in Apoo's lap and kissed him. Hard.

Suddenly everyone was too surprised to speak, not least of all Eustass. Confusion crossed Apoo's face momentarily, but then he closed his eyes and returned the kiss with equal passion.

Eustass's face was the very definition of shock, his eyes bugging wide and his jaw hanging gormlessly open. He stayed like that until Basil pulled away, turned to Eustass and said calmly, "Not so funny when it's not you doing it, hm?"

Apoo, blushing furiously, managed to say, "Yeah, man, you… uh… you keep that in mind for a while."

Eustass blinked slowly, then shook himself. "Yeah, okay, I get it! You win! I'm sorry! Shit, don't be so serious…"

Basil nodded and climbed off Apoo's lap. "I'm glad you understand."

Everything was silent for a bit longer, until Luffy cried, "Ohh, I _get_ it!" and fell laughing onto the sand. A small scrum formed around him as everyone who wasn't Eustass, Trafalgar, Basil or Apoo struggled to find out what exactly was going on. Apoo cracked a bottle of beer and chugged it to hide his embarrassment, and Basil did the same. Trafalgar just looked at Eustass and repeated back to him:

"'Do it, you won't?'"

Eustass gave a soft growl of irritation.

"Fuck you."


	3. Downtime

…

There was a place, a town, where people, dreams and ideas gathered and mixed and became great.

It was where things grew and spread, but for every wonderful success there are a million failed attempts, and somewhere… _below_, but at the same time not, where everything broken, lost or just plain forgotten eventually found its way to, there was Blueno's bar. He had set up there because, when it got down to it, a lot of broken, lost or just forgotten people seemed to find their way to the world below the world too, and someone had to help them on their way. He'd gathered a small group of people in this way; Fukurou, who had wandered in one day, forgotten by even himself; Kumadori, a lost actor looking for a place to be; Jabra, who did _not_ need anyone's help, only somewhere to crash, as he told everyone who asked; and then there was Kaku.

Kaku was something of a mystery. He'd shown up two or three months ago, politely asked for a place to stay, and… never left. Not that Blueno minded, of course. Extra hands were always welcome, and it was good to have someone quiet and sensible to talk to. He did have a worrying tendency of disappearing, though, and that was what he had done that day. Blueno did try not to worry, but it was well past midnight, closing time had been and gone, and Kaku would usually have been home by now.

Reluctantly, he decided to go to bed.

On his way through the back room, he noticed a new face. She sat with Fukurou on the couch, quietly sobbing into the big man's shirt, him gently running his fingers through her messy blonde hair. Fukurou looked up, caught Blueno's eye and quickly looked away, looking faintly embarrassed.

"Ah… this is Kalifa," he explained, "she'll be staying here tonight, I assume that's all right?"

Blueno nodded, "Of course," and continued on his way, Fukurou's awkward laughter following him up the stairwell.

He walked into his bedroom and began to ready himself for bed. For a moment he contemplated dealing with the small stack of paperwork on his desk, but decided against it. There was no hurry. He disrobed, but paused a little after he took off his shirt…

…and there was a soft rap at his window. Blueno frowned and looked, to see Kaku peering at him through the glass. After a moment's confusion, he opened the window for Kaku, who slipped in gracefully and closed it behind him. "I'm sorry to be so late," he said, sitting on the bed beside Blueno, "I… found something I had to take care of."

He looked Blueno up and down. "Ah… I take it I picked a bad time?"

Blueno brushed it off. "Could've been worse. What did you find?" Kaku bit his lip and turned away, as if he was embarrassed of something, so he continued, "It's fine, I won't laugh whatever it is."

Kaku took a deep breath and said quietly, "It's a ship. She's not in the best condition, but I can fix her, or so I hope."

"You're a shipwright, then?"

He nodded. "Yes, or I was. I don't know."

Ah, finally a clue to the enigma of Kaku. Blueno processed that silently, then asked, "Will you show me the ship in the morning?"

Kaku shifted a little closer and said, "Yes."

A moment of quietness passed. Kaku took a deep breath, but said nothing. The clock on his desk ticked softly. Things left unsaid filled the air, made Blueno feel a little awkward, wondering what to say. He turned back to Kaku, and, for want of actual words, said, "Um…"

Kaku looked into his eyes. "Yes?" he said softly. Their faces were awfully close…and then Kaku closed the gap between them, pressing his lips insistently against Blueno's. He returned the kiss on instinct, tucked his arm around Kaku's waist. They parted for a moment, but soon carried on, Blueno gently biting Kaku's lower lip before slipping his tongue into his mouth. He felt the younger man lean against his body and embrace him as they kissed, then he gently drew back. Kaku looked at him curiously –_why'd you stop?_ Blueno just slapped him on the back and said, "You look tired. Go get some rest, we'll talk in the morning."

Kaku nodded, looking rather grateful. "Okay." He brushed his lips against Blueno's cheek, then got up and left. Blueno sat thinking for a while, then shook his head and got into bed. He'd deal with it in the morning.


	4. ReHash

Metal clashed against metal as master and partner sparred in the courtyard.

"No! Try again!"

"Haah—!"

"Block and _dodge_ and- yes! Good!" The tall man jumped out of his student's range, blocking her wild strike with his own sword, "-but not good enough!"

His arm burst into blue flame, enveloping his sword in fire. He spun and struck out, slashing the young woman across the chest. She fell with a cry, and knelt in front of him, her flesh knitting itself back together and healing within seconds as if she were never cut. "Not fair, Marco," she growled, "you never said you'd use your spirit."

He shrugged and flicked a few strands of hair out of his eyes. "But I also never said I wouldn't," he pointed out, the flames on his arm politely snuffing themselves out. His fire spirit, barely visible over his shoulder, seemed to agree. The woman got to her feet and took down her long blonde hair from its ponytail.

"Cheat."

Her healer spirit adjusted her wrap and lifted her chin huffily. Marco's fire spirit gave a silent laugh and flickered over to the other spirit, playfully poking her on the nose. This irritated the healer enough to grab the fire spirit's hat and flicker away. While the two spirits chased each other around the clearing, Marco sheathed his sword and slapped the blonde woman on the shoulder. "We'd better get back to the dojo before Teach eats both our dinners."

She laughed and said, "You're probably right there."

And they made their way back, the two spirits scuffling all the way.

As it turned out, it was too late for Loki's dinner. Marco's was practically untouched, though, and so the two of them shared it quietly while the rest of the warriors bustled all around them. Spirits went where their bonded warriors did, moving around and occasionally through them as they went about their business. Teach stole through the crowd well out of Loki's reach, his dark shadow spirit on his heels, occasionally attempting to pilfer someone else's dinner, but generally receiving a boot to the face for his trouble.

In between cramming mashed potato into her face, Loki asked, "So does Luffy really have another spirit to his name? I heard he did, but…"

Marco nodded and swallowed his mouthful of food. "Yes, and it's a decay spirit at that. You would think that three would be enough, wouldn't you?"

"Mmm…" Loki snatched the last bit of fish out from under Marco's nose. "Four spirits bonded, is that some sort of record?"

_I don't think so_, said the healer spirit, the fire spirit's hat jammed firmly on her head. _Didn't the last king mage have something like ten or eleven?_

"Twelve including the Silver One," added Marco.

A door opened in the air behind him, and Kaku stepped out into the crowd. Strangely enough, Marco's fire spirit also tumbled out, before a broad-shouldered door spirit stepped out and pushed the fire spirit to his feet, giving him a dirty look as he closed the door. _Ha ha… sorry, man_, he chuckled.

The door spirit shoved him out of the way as he went to follow Kaku. _You will be if you try that again._

The fiery one trotted through a warrior or two and stopped beside Marco. _So that's where you went!_ he said, snatching his hat back. _What are we talking about?_

"Well…" began Marco, but he was cut off by a small explosion from the other side of the room. He gritted his teeth and got up. "Damn newbies, I'll bet it's Eustass and Trafalgar again…Come on then, Ace."

The man and the spirit made their way to the fight, and Loki watched with vague interest as all hell broke loose.

* * *

Just by way of an explanation, Loki is the wonderful Kemmasandi's OC, who features prominently in her fic Something In The Water, which you can find on her deviantArt, and maybe on here, I don't know. I'm too lazy to check for myself.


	5. Ribbons of Light

Shouts and cheers rang through the night air, hundreds or what seemed like hundreds of students pouring through the dunes of the beach, drunkenly yelling and singing and dancing with each other. Someone had set a couch on fire, as per tradition, and a small knot of people had gathered around it, to drink and smoke and laugh. Couples met and broke and went under the boardwalk for kissing and more, a large group of the younger ones paddled in the waves, and more people rolled in in cars and motorbikes and skateboards every minute.

There was a gathering of people around one of the guys' car, dancing to the music that boomed out from the speakers at a ridiculous volume. It was where Hachi found Camie, dancing like a madman, her hair plastered to her skin with sweat. "Hatchin," she called out, a huge smile on her face, "come dance with me!"

She ran to him, grabbed him by both hands and pulled him back into the crush of people. They danced, their bodies pressed together in the throng. On an impulse he kissed her, and she kissed back like it was life or death. Someone wolf-whistled, and Hachi flipped them off without looking. Camie broke the kiss and said in his ear, "Hey, let's go back to my car!" She pushed her way back out of the crowd, and he emerged after her, the two of them running across the dunes hand in hand.

They got to her car faster than either of them expected, and Camie ran straight into it, barely managing to turn around before Hachi crashed into her. She laughed out loud and pulled him up close to kiss him again. He wrapped his arms around her, all six of them, and kissed her neck, licking and biting her pale throat. Camie tipped her head back and gave a soft moan, one hand on his shoulder, the other fumbling in her pockets for her keys. She found them and pressed them into one of his hands.

"C'mon, let's go in."

Hachi whispered, "Yeah, let's," into her ear. They broke apart and he unlocked the car, opening the back door. To his surprise, Camie pushed him in face-first. He rolled over and she jumped in on top of him, sitting astride his waist. She swiveled, pulled the door shut, turned back to him and took off her shirt. Giggling happily, she lay back down on top of him and kissed him hard.

They stayed in the car for the rest of the night, making their own entertainment.

Hachi woke up in the morning with light shining through the sunroof and Camie wrapped stark naked around him. "Hey, you're awake," she said softly, a little smile on her face. He made a soft confirming noise and kissed her face. She sighed happily and cuddled in to him a little more. They lay together in comfortable silence for a bit, listening to the distant noise of the waves on the beach and the odd seagull squawk. After a while, Hachi sighed.

"I guess we'd better go home, eh?"

"Mmm…" Camie half-sat up. "Yeah… can you drive? My head hurts."

He nodded, passed her her shirt. "Sure, no problem."

There was a brief search for clothes, then he clambered into the front seat, and waited for her to do up her seatbelt before he started the car. They drove quietly back to their flat, him concentrating on the road, her searching to no avail for the painkillers she was sure she had in the car somewhere. They got home, and he helped Camie in onto the couch and fetched the painkillers for her. He stroked her hair and said, "I have to go to work now. You alright on your own?"

She waved him away. "Yeah, I'm okay."

He nodded, and left her to sleep, tucking his coat over her before he went.


	6. Thriller

Floorboards creaked, shadows danced along the walls as though they were alive, wind whistled through the windows and across the back of Usopp's neck, and he wished oh-so-fervently that he'd never agreed to that stupid test of courage. It had been easy, oh so easy to step up and say he'd be the first to spend the night alone in the old house on the cliff this afternoon, laughing in the sun with Luffy and Sanji and all the rest of them, and he couldn't even back down now. That would just be _asking _to be treated like a frightened little girl for the rest of the summer, and that was something Usopp just couldn't take.

He padded as quietly as possible into the living room –not before checking for errant ghosts, of course- and shone his torch all around the room again, just to make sure. He closed the door behind him, and the other one on the other side of the room too. He thought about pushing a table or something in front of the doors, for extra protection, but decided against it. After all, he reasoned, there was no such thing as ghosts, but if there were, just theoretically speaking, then surely they could move through a door and a dresser as easily as if they weren't there, so he should just save his energy.

Usopp lay on the old beat-up couch under the window, shining his torch towards the other side of the room, just so that nothing could take him by surprise, and waited for morning.

He felt a draft whistling in from the window, which now that he looked had a crack in the pane. He shivered and wrapped his free arm around himself, just to warm up a bit. And then, to his utter dread, the bright torch beam started to fade and die. "Oh, no," he moaned, "oh, no."

But all the begging in the world couldn't stop the fade of his light, and he was left in the dark with a dead torch and no light save for the dim light that shone in through the window. A tree cast its shadow into the room, and Usopp could have sworn it moved.

"It was just the wind," he whispered to himself, "there's no such thing as ghosts."

Another draft chilled his midsection, and the shadow moved again.

"There's no such thing as ghosts," he repeated, and happily for his sanity and his trousers, the shadow didn't move again. He sighed with relief and settled down a bit, but kept an eye on that shadow just in case.

Minutes passed, then slowly blended into hours. The wind had died, and the shadow seemed to be behaving itself. Usopp found himself becoming drowsy, and he thought about going to sleep… Then the shadow moved again.

There hadn't been a draft this time.

Usopp, being sure not to move anything but his eyes, glanced at the shadow. There's no such thing as ghosts, you're being silly, he told himself. No such thing as ghosts.

To his terror, the shadow slowly began to come closer.

Oh, God, his mind raced, please let this be my imagination.

It moved a little more.

Usopp sat bolt upright, ready to run, and the shadow _leapt_-

-there was a burst of light-

-and he fainted where he sat.

A while later, he drifted back into consciousness. He was vaguely aware of someone talking to him, and the soft play of light across his lids-

Hang on!

_Someone talking?_

He opened his eyes, fearing the worst…

And a handsome brown-haired man looked at him, a big goofy grin on his face. "Oh, good, you're alive!" he laughed.

Usopp managed to sit up slowly. "Who…?" he croaked, nervously looking about the room for that damned shadow.

The man noticed his concern, slapped him on the back in a friendly way and said, "Don't worry, that thing can't hurt you now."

"Where is it?" asked Usopp, fear growing in the pit of his stomach. What if it came back, oh God, what if it came back?

"Uh, dead, mate. I killed it, and just in the nick of time too. You're damn lucky tonight's the night I check this ol' place for ghosties and ghoulies."

Usopp sank back onto the couch, relief suddenly making him limp as a flounder. "Oh, that's what that light was…"

The man nodded. "I'm Thatch, by the way. I hunt ghosts for a living, but I only check this building every so often 'coz the owner's too cheap to make it worth my while. He paid me this week, though, and a bloody good thing for you too, eh?"

He nodded and laughed nervously. A thought struck him, and he sat back up. "Hey, you're not leaving, are you?" he said worriedly, "only I have to stay here all night, it's this stupid dare and nobody'll believe me if I tell them what happened and…"

Thatch, as he called himself, yawned and said, "You know, there's only a couple hours left in the night anyway, but all right. You get some sleep, you look like you need it."

Usopp nodded yet again, lay on the couch and was asleep within minutes.

Light woke him once again, but this time it was sunlight, coming in through that damn window. He yawned and looked over to where Thatch was. "Morning, lad," grinned the older man.

Usopp smiled back at him. "Hey. Thanks for staying."

Thatch waved him away. "Don't worry about it, I'm just about to leave." Something seemed to cross his mind as he stood, and he turned to Usopp and said, "Hey, before I go, just a little pointer…"

"Yeah?" Usopp listened carefully, in case Thatch was going to tell him how to kill ghosts or something cool like that.

Thatch began to turn translucent. "Not all ghosts are vengeful arseholes!" he called out, disappearing fully just before he finished the last word.

A new land speed record was set by Usopp as he pelted full tilt down the hallway and out the front door, not stopping for breath until he was safely back in town and the house was only barely visible on the horizon.


End file.
